New Tooling From Azure AI🍳🛠 Plenty Of Other News

For those that are new around here, this is an extension of my weekly newsletter where I highlight new and innovative AI products that are worth exploring.

Hey hey!

Happy Wednesday!

Here’s your news in newsletter!

Riding off the high of yesterday’s catchup recap, Today’s News issue covers the news from the past week, so it’ll be short and sweet.

In this Issue:

• Your Weekly Industry News Recap

• Investors; We need to talk

• The Raise Recap

The Headliner: Azure AI Foundry Labs🧪📰

Microsoft just unveiled Azure AI Foundry Labs, a cutting-edge research hub designed to push the boundaries of AI innovation. This initiative will provide researchers and developers access to advanced AI models, computing power, and real-world experimentation tools. With a focus on breakthroughs in generative AI, machine learning, and AI ethics, Microsoft aims to accelerate the accessibility of intelligent solutions. 🚀💡 Read more: Link

Your Weekly Industry News Recap

• How to Make AI More Sustainable (Without Greenwashing): AI is an energy hog—this article explores real ways to make AI greener without the empty hype. 🌱⚡ Read more: Link

• The AI Brain Drain Dilemma: Countries are losing AI talent at an alarming rate—what’s causing this "brain drain" and how do we fix it? 🌍🔬Read more: Link

• NIST’s AI Security Testing Update: AI security testing is getting an overhaul—NIST just released new guidance on automating security monitoring. 🔍🛡️ Read more: Link

• The Downfall of AI Startup Humane: What went wrong with Humane, and why did its once-promising AI wearable company crash and burn? 😬💸 Read more: Link

• Tencent Reshuffles AI Division Amid Rising Competition: Chinese tech giant Tencent is restructuring its AI app ecosystem to keep up with fierce market battles. 📱 Read more: Link

• Azure AI Foundry Labs Launches: Microsoft unveils AI Foundry Labs, a new hub for AI research and real-world experimentation. 🧪💻 Read more: Link

• Anthropic’s New AI Model Gives Users More Control: A customizable reasoning model from Anthropic lets users decide how much AI “thinks” before responding. 🧠⚡ Read more: Link

• Zillow Uses AI to Build Software Without Engineers: Replit & Anthropic’s AI agents just helped Zillow create production-level software—with zero engineers! 🤯🏡 Read more: Link

• The Ethical AI Debate—Does It Even Exist?: "Ethical AI" sounds great, but some experts argue it’s a myth—can AI ever truly be unbiased? ⚖️🤖 Read more: Link

• Invisible, Autonomous, and Hackable—The AI Agent Dilemma: AI agents are smart, but are they too smart for their own good? The risks are mounting. 🚨🤖 Read more: Link

Investors; We Need To Talk…

Over the past year of reporting on AI, We’ve watched astronomic valuations get slapped on startups building foundational infrastructure—chipsets, core models, and research labs. But here’s the thing: we’re in a sandbox era, where everyone’s experimenting, and the real winners won’t be the ones selling the newest iteration of the shovel. They’ll be the ones digging up value that people actually use. We’re in an exploratory phase that I like to call the sandbox era! What does this mean for investors? It means your chips might want to be balanced across a few positions. Which ones? Read the whole article on the state of funding for the AI space.

The Raise Recap 📈💰 

• Covu Increases Series A to $32M: AI-powered insurance tech startup Covu secures $32M after hitting major milestones—reshaping the future of insurtech. 📉🤖 Read more: Link

• Spyne Secures $16M for AI Expansion: AI-powered image editing startup Spyne lands $16M in Series A to expand into the U.S. market. 📸💡 Read more: Link

• Lambda AI Raises $480M in NVIDIA-Backed Round: AI cloud startup Lambda secures a whopping $480M, with NVIDIA among its investors. 💻🚀 Read more: Link

• Abridge Raises $250M for AI Healthcare: Abridge secures $250M to enhance AI-powered clinical documentation tools for doctors. 🏥📑 Read more: Link

• Dream Secures $100M for AI Cybersecurity: AI-powered cybersecurity startup Dream lands $100M to protect critical infrastructure. 🔒💰 Read more: Link

• Together AI Raises $305M in Series B: AI cloud firm Together AI secures $305M to boost AI-driven model hosting services. ☁️🤖 Read more: Link

• AuditoriaAI Raises $38M for AI Finance Tech: AI-driven finance automation platform AuditoriaAI lands $38M in Series B funding. 💰 📊Read more: Link

• Gomboc AI Raises $13M for Cloud Security: AI-powered cloud security firm Gomboc raises $13M to automate cybersecurity risk remediation. 🌐🔐 Read more: Link

• OpenEvidence Secures Sequoia Investment ($1B Valuation): AI-powered legal research startup OpenEvidence reaches a $1B valuation with Sequoia's backing. ⚖️💵 Read more: Link

• Baseten Lands $75M to Solve AI Bottlenecks: AI infrastructure startup Baseten secures $75M to tackle AI inference challenges at scale. 🚀🖥️ Read more: Link

Here’s What I’m Watching 🎞👀

Latest Progress on AI Agents at scale! Venturebeat meets with Sam Witteveen to dive deeper into the progress of some of the bigger publicly active players.

Stay well, and see you next week!

-✌🏽 Sam